checkmate
by saltycaramelx
Summary: the thrill of the chase was always so much better than the victory, in his opinion. VILLAIN DEKU AU


Isolated pawns;

_Pawns that have no other pawns of the same colour on the adjacent files are isolated and "alone," lacking support by fellow pawns._

* * *

The man could feel the space between his mouth and scarf warm every time he let out a breath. His papercut hands held onto the umbrella tightly, finding the cold numbness he felt in his fingers uncomfortable. His other hand wasn't fairing all that well either- squeezing the handle of a briefcase.

Night-time in the Tokyo streets were dead and silent. Not many people out and about at this time of night- and especially not in this area. He could count the number of cars that drove past him on one hand, and the amount of homeless on five.

He looked to the billboard ahead of him. It was flashy, made to catch the attention of onlookers with colourful letters- popping from the new tarp, in a town of bleak and dull hues. A large, muscular blonde man smiled down at the cold freezing citizens. Mocking them.

He clenched his jaw at the sight of the offensive image. All Might was a bastard, squawking about peace and justice like a broken record- like he doesn't turn a blind eye to those aspiring to help repeat those very same values to the rest of the world. He thinks it's all about him.

The growling man turned to an elderly woman and a young boy cradled together by a brick wall. The child, with shooting stars in his eyes, points to the billboard before saying something rapidly to his guardian. Guess he's not the only one who thinks so, he thought with a sneer.

At the sound of metal crashing and plastic shuffling he looked to his right, where a dark alleyway with a fallen bin and scurrying rat had greeted him. Scurrying around with a rotten piece of food in between its clutches and racing towards it's companions. The space between his mouth and scarf felt sweaty with heat. He's getting paranoid.

'_That damn kid,'_

Soon, he found himself at his apartment complex. His umbrella and shoes left a trail of water on the metal stairs, flaking with yellow paint. He curled his lips in disgust of the smell. Vomit, sweat and cigarettes.

Reaching his floor, he reached for the keys in his pocket, and unlocked the door to a dark apartment. He stilled when he turned on the light.

Another coat was sitting on the rack.

His scarf suddenly felt too restrictive, and his blood ran cold. A streak of light reached his peripheral vision, and he dropped his brief case in pursuit of it. The light leaked from a creak in his office door. He pushed the door aside.

"Ah, welcome home, Mr. Tanigawa."

Sitting on his desk, with a chessboard in front of him, was the green haired boy who had haunted him for the past month. Wearing a freckled cheek smile, and a black waist coat on top of a white dress shirt.

"Y-You're…"

"This is a lovely apartment you have here," the boy waved a gloved hand, "the décor is very homey- have you ever considered becoming an interior designer?"

Mr. Tanigawa clenched his fists, having a frustrating time trying to swallow. When he finally did, he choked, "how did you find my address?"

The boy jumped from his seat, to which the terrified man flinched. He bounced on the balls of his feet, taking short strides to the window at the left of the room with his hands behind his back. It was still raining.

"Oh, it wasn't too difficult," he said, watching the raindrops race each other to the bottom of the window.

He turned to face him, and with eerie luminescent eyes said calmly, "do you have a phobia of rats?"

The numbness in his fingers returned to Mr. Tanigawa, but not only in his hands- It spread, quickly as his heartrate- and cemented his feet to the ground.

They've finally come. And of all people, they had to send _him._

He opened his mouth to question him but was cut off when the teen clapped his hands together. "Now, I'm sure my visit is… unexpected. Terrible etiquette on my behalf," he said, walking over to the desk and behind the seat. "So, I've taken the liberty to arrange some entertainment for us. Hope you don't mind- but I doubt you'd want your guests to feel unwelcomed," he smiled.

He leaned over the chair, gesturing to it with a flick of the wrist reminiscent of a waiter.

"Have a seat, Mr. Tanigawa."

He wasn't asking.

That was all the pepper and salt haired man needed to know in order for him to sit, leaning away from the looming presence beside him.

The boy smirked, walking over to the other side of the desk, and taking his seat.

"Are you familiar with the rules, sir?"

"Yes." He bit out.

His green eyes lingered on his own for a moment, before he smiled and looked down, then up again. "White goes first," he nodded his head to Mr. Tanigawa's chess pieces.

The elder man stared at the boy cautiously for a moment, before finally looking down at his options.

A few beats passed by, before he finally made his decision, and reached out to take a chess piece.

His hand hovered over the pawn before he finally moved it.

"Ah, I see. D2 to D4," he said, cupping his cheek in the palm of his hand. He plucked a black knight and brought it in front of his pawns.

Mr. Tanigawa sat silent for a moment, deciding it would be unwise to make a move off-handily. He tried to supress the sneer once the grinning boy in front of him made his move in a fraction of his.

"You know, chess is a favourite of mine," he leaned on his elbows and cupped his cheeks. "Want to know why, sir?"

Said man had paused a moment, opened his mouth- and the young boy interrupted him.

"It's a game that relies on strategy you see," his rubber clad fingers danced across the pieces, with a terrifying gentleness. "It doesn't matter how high and mighty on the outside you appear to be- because in the end the only thing that really matters…" he picked up a piece.

"Is what goes up here," he pointed to temple, gesturing to it with a black queen.

Dark green met quivering blue.

And suddenly the damn broke.

Tears began to spill out of Mr. Tanigawa's eyes and the wrinkles on his face began to appear. They twisted and morphed into a mourning face of grief.

"I'm sorry!" His scream tore from his throat as rough as sandpaper, and he crawled to get out of his seat and onto the floor.

"I shouldn't have stolen the money from you guys!" He bowed down. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry- but you have to understand…" he strained his neck to look up.

"Oh?" the boy smiled.

"I needed it to make my own agency! None of those bastards accepted me or even gave me a chance!" Hysterics kicked in, his pleas riding on the adrenaline. "All they do is sit in their highchair with their licenses and money and flaunt it to the rest of the world!"

"Meanwhile the locals don't get shit! We bust our asses of just to make the world go around- working like we're some kind of ants underneath their feet!"

"Even when I had the money they still wouldn't give me an agency! So what, now they're denying the world more heroes? Flawed logic from so called 'heroes'!" he spat.

He crawled against the floor towards the boy, flailing his arm to his knee and shaking it. The blue in his eyes seemed to want to roll back.

"I'll kill them for you! I-I'll do anything! I hate those bastards as much as you do- I'll be useful, just don't kill me please!"

"It's alright, Mr. Tanigawa."

The broken man looked up, his tears spilling still, and his voice cracked. "Really?"

"Of course!" He smiled with nurture, and stood up from his chair, knocking the frail man down.

"I'll go inform the League of your cooperation. I'm sure they'll be pleased."

Mr. Tanigawa fell to his knees. The only movement on his face, was the slow creeping of his surprised smile.

And began to laugh.

"I can kill those idiots! I can finally kill them all!"

The teen smiled and nodded, grabbing his coat by the door.

"Oh! One more thing, sir."

The man, still clutching at his sides and shaking with violent laughter, looked up to him from the floor. And all of a sudden he stopped, and his heart dropped from his chest.

"Thank you for the game of chess."

The door clicked shut.

Mr. Tanigawa scrambled to stand up, clawing at the chair to see what was on the desk.

Checkmate.

* * *

Day or night- it didn't matter. It was concealed well. In between an old tobacco store and a new pharmacy was a little narrow path with trash bags overflowing out of their dumpsters. Puddles with odd rainbow-ish swirls in them peppered the concrete ground, and led the way for the small bar hidden amongst the darkness.

A teenager with freckles speckling his face just like the puddles he followed; melted into the shadows with his gloved hands in his pockets. His gaze, seemingly electric in the void of light, counted each step he took. Bored. And in need of stimulation.

The high wore off.

It took a while for him to notice he was at the bar until he stepped into a puddle lit neon red, and the muffled symphony of jazz. He looked up.

'_The Warping Gate'_

Allowing one last breath of fresh air to fill his lungs, he grabbed the handle and opened the door to reveal a room of clear jazz, packed red velvet lounges. With the sound of glass against glass to top it all off.

He felt the gazes on him immediately. He looked much too young to be attending a bar like this. He felt their stares like hot coals sinking in his flesh. Either the bar always gets new guests, or the regulars don't seem to realise that this was a frequent thing.

He made his way to the back in one tug of his tie, two clenches of his jaw and three fast steps. With a quick flick if his emerald eyes, he slipped back into the shadows again, into a dark corridor shielded by a red curtain. The jazz was almost completely faded by the time he reached the door to the far right.

Toga was the first to notice him come in, "Deku's back!" she sang.

Kurogiri, still wiping off glasses (because, really, he didn't have anything better to do,) gave a solemn nod before asking, "How'd it go?"

Deku shrugged, wiping at his nose with his wrist before taking his coat off and plopping on a bar stool. Kurogiri started to fix him a milkshake.

"He didn't know how to play chess," he noted, "But other than that- Shigiraki was right. He said he'd become one of us,"

"And you made sure to set the timer off?"

Deku sighed, "with time to spare, unfortunately," he slumped against the bar.

"Aww," Toga cooed. "There, there. I'm sure it got fun towards the end though, right?"

Deku raised his bushy green head to smile sweetly, before dropping it immediately.

Kurogiri shook his head. "You're being dramatic again."

"Oh, am I?"

"I'm sure Deku's just sad that he didn't get to see Mr. Tanigawa's face went his apartment went boom," Toga said.

Deku scoffed, catching the chocolate milkshake sliding down the wooden bar before taking a sip. "Whatever you say, Toga." The red cheeked girl just giggled in response.

Mr. Tanigawa was a man on their hit list for some time now. After stealing money from their already bankrupt vaults- coupled with the fact that he'd been trying to bribe heroes into joining agencies, assaulting those who refused and eventually becoming desperate enough to trade the League's location in exchange for a top job- Deku had been given the job of taking as much as he could from the situation, such as the heroes who _did_ accept those bribes.

The end result? Money, info- and a pitiful dead man.

The three villains heard the sound of a door being opened before Shigaraki, Dabi and Spinner came in, all with indifferent looks.

"Turn on the TV," Shigaraki said, stretching his arms out.

Placing a glass down, Kurogiri fetched the remote whilst the rest of the League of Villains made themselves comfortable on cushioned bar stools and lounges.

_'__-ave been evacuated. Police are strongly advising those who live in the area to offer up any security footage to aid in the hunt for the culprit-"_

Dabi nearly spat out his drink he'd nabbed from the bar. "He _actually _pulled it off?" He said, fighting the urge to break out into a coughing fit.

"You really think Shigaraki would give him a job this important if he thought he couldn't?" Spinner snorted, twirling the edge of a knife on a scaled finger.

"Gotta admit, though," he said, taking a hold of a knife to pause its manoeuvres and turning to Deku. "I didn't think you'd go through with it."

Deku, twirling the spiralled straw in his drink just shrugged. "Sure… I guess," he sighed. "He was starting to get boring anyway."

Shigiraki just smirked behind his father's hand from the farthest bar stool.

"Looks like you'll be quite useful, kid."

This time, the smile Deku gave was genuine.

* * *

OH BOY WAS THIS A FUN ONE

Ok no seriously I've been just spiralling down an anime hole and bhna is a fandom I really regret not getting into sooner. I always just kept putting it off (even tho I knew I should watch it,) and when I finally did my sleep schedule suffered because of it.

Aaaand consequently, I found myself discovering villain deku.

In hindsight, my first ever bnha fanfic should probably be something for me to get to be more familiar with the characters before I mess around with them, but I couldn't resist lol.

I kinda just prayed everything would work out halfway and then I tried tying up everything together to make it look elusive but im sure it just looks like chicken scrap.

When i think of a villain deku, i think of super smart, cunning and manipulative- only really showing his true colours to his allies and such. I drew inspiration from sherlock for this (u might see some references ;))

is it OC? oh definitely, but it was fun.

If you've got any ways I can improve, please do let me know. It'll help me get even better :D

Either way, I hope you've enjoyed it.

Ps. The definition for the chess term, isolated pawn, is from the website


End file.
